Is it Punishment?
by laxwriter
Summary: When an unexpected guest arrives at the New Directions Good Luck performance, Quinn will be forced to revisit her mistakes and all the pain and struggle she has endured. Post "On My Way".  One Shot.


**A/N Just a little ficlet that jumped into my brain while I was suppose to be writing a report for work. I really should have become like an editor or something than I could read all day and get paid, alas I can't. Anyway hope you all like it. Please review! Disclaimer: I do not own GLEE or any of its characters. GLEE belongs to FOX and its creators. **

The curtain fell to an auditorium over flowing with applause. It was odd to hear, at least for the group of students standing on the stage for this type of performance. The New Directions were off to the Show Choir Nationals in two days and as practice Mr. Shuester had organized a good luck performance. The club had been surprised to see that the auditorium that was their home was half filled with well-wishers, it was a true sign of how far the club had come, they'd gone from being slushed to being respected at least if only a little bit.

Smiling Quinn Fabray observed her friends who were laughing and hugging one another. Contentment and peace flowed over her. Four months ago she'd thought she'd never be a part of this again. She'd been laid up in a hospital bed, her body broken in enumerable places. Her friends' faces then were filled with concern, sadness, guilt, fear, and worst of all pity. But that had changed as time passed. Quinn slowly grew stronger; her scrapes and bruises healing first, followed by her lungs, ribs, and wrist. Now all that need to heal for Quinn to return to normal were her legs, and that may never happen. Quinn shook the thought from her head, she would not wallow in her own self-pity, not tonight, she was alive and singing with her friends, and her mother and most importantly Beth were in the audience. Quinn smiled at the thought of her daughter, the daughter she was getting a second chance to know.

"You were awesome Q." Quinn smiled at Artie, who'd been her trusted guide and confidant the past few months.

"You too, Artie." The two began following the rest of the club out of the auditorium and were met by Quinn's mom and Shelby who was holding Beth.

"Quinnie, you sounded great." Judy Fabray kissed her daughter's forehead. Tear's escaped the older blonde's eyes, and for once the woman didn't wipe them away in shame. "I'm so proud of you."

"We all are." Shelby said giving Quinn a hug and then placing the toddler in Quinn's lap.

"In, In," the little girl squeaked and hugged Quinn tight.

"Hello Beth. Did you like the show?" Beth nodded her head and everyone laughed at how cute she was. Beth had become the unofficial glee club mascot over the past three months, as the little girl was always around since Shelby was helping the New Directions prepare for National.

"If I may?" Puck said taking Quinn's chair and began pushing Quinn and Beth towards the choir room. Beth smiled and started yelling "Uck, Uck." Quinn giggled, she loved Beth's mispronunciation of Puck's name.

"Quinn, I'm headed home. Please be in by 12." Judy called out. Quinn lifted her hand up and waved to let her mom know she'd heard.

The choir room was noisy when Quinn, Beth, and Puck arrived. Shelby was talking with Mr. Shue, probably analyzing the performance to see if anything needed to be tweaked. Puck pushed Quinn to the front row next to Santana and Brittany.

"Hey mini Q." Santana tickled Beth's stomach and the little girl began to giggle loudly and squirm. Quinn tightened her hold on her daughter as to not let the toddler fall off her lap.

"I though you gave it up." A gruff but familiar voice, though one Quinn hadn't heard in over two years, filled her ears. Quinn's head shot up as the room fell quiet. Her eyes instantly landed on a tall blonde man, with broad shoulders and a slight beer gut. He was dressed in khaki pants, a blue shirt with a white vest over it. Quinn shivered unconsciously at the sight of him.

"Daddy." Her voice sounded foreign to her, so weak and scared.

Russell Fabray took several steps into the room, his eyes never leaving Beth's beautiful face. Quinn noticed quickly and pulled her daughter closer to her, possibly sensing her fear, Beth began to whine. "It looks like you." Russell said as he stopped half way in the room. Quinn instantly passed Beth to Puck who'd come up next to them, and wheeled herself forward. She was vaguely aware of everyone else in the room but just barely. There was one thing on her mind, protect Beth.

"She is not an it, her name is Beth. And I did give her up, so she wouldn't have to endure knowing you, and her mother is letting me be in her life. Something I cherish deeply." The coldness and edge in her voice was a tone she hadn't used since her HBIC days, since she was kicked out of her home, by him.

"Don't speak to me like that, I am your father." Russell growled. The two her now inches from each other. Russell was a tall man and had always towered over Quinn, and now that she was in her wheelchair the height difference was even greater, yet Quinn never felt stronger and more equal standing within his midst.

"Oh so now I'm your daughter?" She glared up at him eyeing him suspiciously, "What are you doing here Russell?" He didn't flinch at her tone or words, she wasn't surprised, she had to of learned to be the 'Ice Queen' from someone.

"Let's talk outside." He ordered and began to turn.

"No." Quinn held firm when he turned on the spot, "I said outside Lucy Quinn."

"And I said no. You want to talk to me, after over two years of ignoring my existence, you talk to me here."

"This is a private family matter, young lady, and you will not embarrass me again." Russell was in her face now, his hands on the rails of her chair. His breath, which not surprisingly smiled of scotch, smacking her in the face. Forcing her to remember memories she'd long ago pushed to the far reaches of her mind.

"This is my family, the only family that really matters anyway, so if you have something to say than you do it in front of them or not at all."

Russell was quiet for a long moment just staring at her, first her face then her legs and finally back to her eyes. "I came to see if it was true."

"If what was true?"

"That you'd been punished for your sins, for being a slut, cheater, and liar." His words held no malice, more resignation, but they still did hurt, the same as it had when he'd called her a disappointment and kicked her out of his home and life. Quinn was shocked still and for a moment and not the first, wondered if he was right if her paralysis was indeed God's way of punishing her, if she deserved all the pain. Stuck in her own mind Quinn missed the outburst that came from her friends. She missed Puck, who'd earlier relinquished Beth into Shelby's arms, launch at Russell and punch the man in the jaw, "Don't you dare talk to her like that." Russell had stumbled back from Puck who continued to advance on the older man, but now flanked by Sam and Finn. "You have no fucking clue who she is. How amazing she is." Puck screamed as his fist landed on Russell's jaw a seconding time.

"She the strongest, bravest, most resilient person I know." Finn chimed in as he grabbed Russell by the collar and shoved him into the wall.

"Quinn is kind, compassionate, loving, and loyal. She's the most intelligent person I know. She's going to Yale." Sam spat in Russell's face.

"And that's all in spite of you." Puck snarled, "Now get the fuck out and don't you dare ever think of coming near her or my daughter again."

Finn pushed Russell out the door, the man hitting the ground before picking himself up and walking away.

Yes, Quinn had missed the entire conversation, her eyes were closed tight, as if she couldn't see her father, then his words were real. With her eyes shut she keep away the agony, self-doubt, guilt, and fear that quickly began to rise in her. His words, every mean and deprecating word, her father had every said to her was reappearing and reverberating in her mind. Was she really a disappointment, where her mistakes too many to awful to make up for? Quinn hadn't thought so, she was a kid after all and kids make mistakes, and yet here she was in a wheelchair, possibly for live. Was this her atonement for having premarital sex, for cheating on Finn and lying about the baby, for bullying Rachel, for trying to frame Shelby.

"Quinn, honey open your eyes." The softness of the voice was soothing and calming but Quinn refused to listen. She feared what she'd find when she did.

"Q, please, look at us." Two squeezes, one on each hand, startled Quinn and she slowly opened her eyes. Shelby and Santana knelt before her. Their eyes gazing into her's. See saw understanding in Shelby's and love in Santana's.

"He's wrong." Santana said firmly.

"Is he? Everything I've done, I needed to pay for it." Quinn looked away again and closed her eyes fighting back the tears that threatened to fall. Only Russell Fabray could render her into a complete mess with so few words.

"Everything you've done? You mean standing tall in the face of adversity, carrying through with a pregnancy despite the consequence, protecting your friends no matter what, facing your own demons and faults, winning, and becoming an amazing young woman that anyone should be so honored to know." Shelby stroked Quinn's hand gently. "Giving me not only a daughter I craved for, but reuniting me with my eldest daughter, whom I thought I'd lost all chances to get to know. Quinn look at me."

Quinn did as she was told and looked at the adoptive mother of her baby. "We all make mistakes Quinn, but what matters in how we learn from them, who we become not in spite of but because of those mistakes. Quinn I am so proud of you, of the woman you've become. Beth is so luck to have you."

"She's right Q. You're so much more than that scared little girl who just wanted her father to lover her that you were sophomore year. You're so much more than that confused teen who just wanted to pretend the past never happened, and you are light years away from the lost and terrified skank you were at the beginning of the year. Personally I think it's incredible the way you've changed for the better in such a short period of time."

"Not changed." Rachel came up and took Shelby's place who stepped back, "This Quinn here, the one we all love and admire so much, she's always been there, just hidden away. You've been through so much Quinn, much of which we don't even know, and you put up walls to protect yourself, and that's understandable. You wanted his approval so you became someone you weren't, and now now you've knocked down those walls yourself and showed us the true Quinn."

"There was never anything wrong with you Quinn, you were never a bad person. You're too hard on yourself." Puck had now taken Santana's place kneeling in front of Quinn. "I feel in love with you because I saw how great you were, and I love you even more because that greatness has grown to brilliance." Smiling Puck gently brushed his lips against her's. Warmth spread through Quinn radiating from the spot their lips had connected. "Don't listen to him, his a horrible man. He is just jealous that you are and have always been your own person. That you know what you want and go for it. He knows nothing. I love you, your mom loves you, Beth loves you, we all love you and that is all that matters. Russell Fabray can burn in hell."

Quinn looked from his chocolate brown eyes and around to all her friends, they were all nodding at Pucks words. Brittany smiled brightly at her, Mercedes mouthed I love you; Finn and Sam both nodded and gave her small smiles. Quinn knew Puck was right, they all were. She was a good person, and her accident hadn't been a punishment. Bad things happen that we can't stop but we can control how they affect our lives, and that was exactly what Quinn was doing and would continue to do, with the support of all her family and friends. "Thank you."

Puck leaned in and kissed her more passionately this time. As he pulled away he leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I love you so much Lucy."

"And I love you, Noah." She replied softly. Standing again Puck looked around the group, "I believe we were planning a celebration before we were so rudely interrupted."

Quinn was grateful to Puck for pulling the attention away from her. Everyone began talking quickly about where to go and what to do. Mr. Shue squeezed her shoulder as he made his way over to the group to try and calm them so he could talk about their performance. Quinn was listening quietly to the ruckus when she felt a dull nudge. Glancing down she saw Beth pulling on her left ankle. "He Bethie want to come up?"

"Up In." Beth reached up and Quinn pulled her to her lap it was only when Beth was snuggled against her that Quinn realized what had happened.

"Oh my God." She breathed out.

"Quinn you Okay?" Kurt asked next to her.

"I felt it." Quinn couldn't believe it. Her mind was working a mile a minute replaying what had just happened in her mind.

Kurt raised an eyebrow at her, "Felt what?"

"Beth, I felt Beth." Confusion shone on Kurt's face until realization hit him.

"You felt her, are you serious?" Kurt jumped from his chair pulling everyone's attention to the pair.

"What's going on over there?" Mr. Shue asked, clearly tired of the interruption.

"Quinn felt Beth!" Kurt jumped up and down.

"What?" Puck was now standing and walking over.

Quinn looked at him tears streaming down her cheeks, "Beth pulled on my ankle and I felt her."

Silence was heard before the room burst into noise and everyone rushed to Quinn. "Which ankle?" Puck asked excitedly.

"Left." He instantly pulled it gently. Quinn broke into a smile. She felt him, it was light and dull and she was pretty sure she couldn't feel his whole hand on her ankle, but she felt something. "I feel it, its dull, but it's there."

Puck kissed her again before turning to everyone, "Now we definitely have to celebrate." Yes they did and hopefully they'd have much more to celebrate in the future, and

Quinn couldn't wait.

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